Kererū

This week we looked at the Matariki star Tupuārangi which is associated with food that comes from the sky and is linked to birds. Traditionally kererū were harvested around this time. It is also connected to the harvesting of elevated foods such as berries and fruits.

We learned lots of Kererū facts:

• Kererū only lay and look after one egg at a time
• They are important to our native trees as they the only still living NZ bird are able to eat and distribute the big berries.
• Some iwi call them Kuku or Kukupa
• If they live around houses they can often fly into windows
• They are one of the largest pigeons in the world
• It is now against the law to hunt them
• Kererū are native to NZ

Cathy from the library found some books for us so we could research the types of trees Kererū like. We used the books to draw a Kererū food forest that we could put our painted Kererū on. 

The collaboration was impressive by those involved and the finished piece looks fantastic!